Jackie Chan Adventures

More than a year ago I saw some promos for a Jackie Chan cartoon that would air on the Kids WB. Pairing up with our reluctant hero was a sassy niece...and I thought that was a formula for disaster. Well, the animation gods have smiled down on Jackie Chan Adventures, as the series has lasted longer than a season on network television...and Activision has licensed the show for an action title for the Game Boy Advance. Developed by Torus Games, the GBA version of the TV show is a variation of the whole Double Dragon/Final Fight design that's solid fun but a bit limited and clunky at the same time.

Features

10 levels

Earned combo moves

Battery Save

Only for Game Boy Advance

Jackie's been "recruited" to recover eight scrolls tossed all over the world before they end up in the grip of the "Dark Hand". The adventure is good fun in a mindless brawler sort of way. There's a bit of technique involved in getting through the ten different levels in the adventure -- blocking is encouraged towards the second half, and you'll have to put some basic platform jumping to the test in several instances in almost every level. Items (and enemies) can also be picked up and utilized as weapons, too.

There's certainly nothing graphically wrong with this Game Boy Advance brawler - Torus built 3D models for each of the character sprites in the game, shading them to match the cartoon's unique style. Jackie and Co. fill the screen with a decent size and plenty of animation frames...the action flows smoothly even when the playing field crowd up with more than five sprites at once. All of the backgrounds and sprites blend together almost seamlessly...objects that seem like they're a fixed part of the scenery can actually be picked up or destroyed. Unfortunately, the size of the characters affect some of the gameplay elements, creating annoying "leaps of faith" at certain points in levels. Since the "camera" follows Jackie, it occasionally will not scroll far enough to let gamers see what lies past a harsh drop-off...you'll have to trust what's beyond the edge by jumping or falling off, hoping like heck there's solid ground to land on off-camera. And of course, sometimes there isn't.

The game's downfall is its lack of variety. Other brawlers on the system, including Final Fight One and X-Men offer multiple playable characters with a different feel. Here, all you get is Jackie. Torus tries to shake up the action a bit by allowing players to earn extra moves throughout the game by picking up scrolls. But it's not really an incentive as it's a requirement in the gameplay...a scroll can be found near the end of almost every level, which means most of the cool moves are inaccessible early in the game. And by the end of the game, you're already good enough to get away with pulling off the basic library of moves. The controls overall are relatively intuitive, but they do suffer from a slight stiffness that could have been tweaked. And it's a shame that another developer can't see the beauty of fighter-style juggle combos in a brawler, because that could have enhanced the cartoony action of Jackie Chan Adventures had they been included.

Jackie Chan Adventures also doesn't last terribly long because the current can be saved to the cartridge with infinite continues...any persistent gamer can punch/kick/jump their way through the game's challenges in just a handful of hours. It's a shame that there's no link cable support to enhance the replay value, since this would have been a decent two, three, or four player action title.

The Verdict

Torus Games' brawler on the GBA is a decent adventure that could have benefited from a few more elements to spice up the gumbo. When compared to games like Final Fight One on the system, Jackie Chan Adventures just doesn't have enough to reach the same level of enjoyment. But as is, it's a good buy for folks who enjoy the series, and like a solid, mindless action title.